All Good Things Come to an End
by obscureshadows
Summary: They changed each other forever, but as we all know, all good things must come to an end.


She didn't know if he enjoyed tearing out her heart, but he found ways to do it. All the time. It hurt more with every passing day, but she had always held herself up with pride. He wasn't going to be the cause of her downfall. She made sure that she followed her heart and held her head up tall. No matter what. She was so careful all the time, really, it wasn't her fault; it was her mother was the one who had first installed her love of balance, and normality. "Rosie, remember, if everything in your life is balanced, nothing can possibly go wrong. Believe me." That was her mother's words. Exactly. So she followed that, from the day she heard it as a wisp of a five year old. She wanted stability, so she followed the same routine every day, and hid her emotions, as she learned that expression of feelings only destroyed calm and peace. She continued to be the stable, normal girl up until she was nineteen years old.

Then someone came along. Someone who made her forget everything she had so religiously followed for the past fourteen years. Scorpius Malfoy. He was the one who told her to be different, and enjoy it, no matter what the cost was. He told her that it'll make you appreciate life more, make you realize your full potential. Those were the words convinced her to change. Maybe it was the way he whispered it in her ear, the way that his perfect blonde hair tickled her cheek as her bent down to say it. Whatever it was, it worked. And she changed. She dyed the ends of her blazing red hair black, just to be a bit rebellious. She listened to rock music, but the kind with inspirational lyrics, the gentler kind (because she hadn't given all of her values up). She took risks and followed her dreams. She gave up the ways of stability and instead adopted a life full of unexpected turns and happiness. She became almost unrecognizable.

Most importantly, she fell in love. Something she vowed she would never do. She had seen love tear people apart, and ruin them. But she did. With him. The son of her father's worst enemy. The boy who told her to change. She found that she enjoyed love. She was more relaxed than she had ever been. That was the first time she ever doubted the wise words of her mother. Her mother had surely never experienced this exhilaration. If she had, she wouldn't be so conservative. Nobody would if they could feel what she could. It was a new beginning. It was as if they were meant for each other. Of course, there was the expected whispers of a Weasley and a Malfoy being together, but that made no difference to them. On Fridays, he would take her out to concerts and then dinners at fancy restaurants, both of them looking completely and totally out of place. In the evenings, she would cook, and he would attempt to help, mostly ending up burning things. They would sit together, and finish dinner in a somewhat peaceful manner. Then they would head off to bed, snuggling into the darkness of twilight. Every moment was precious, and they both believed it. They thought that everything was okay, and would continue to be till the end of time. But as the saying goes, all good things have to come to an end.

And then it happened. The star-crossed lovers' romance ended all of a sudden one day. Her parents and brother were notified that she had moved to a different flat, on the complete opposite side of London. His parents were told the girl had left. They both were confused. The families were not close by any means, but were equally as puzzled. In the few months they had spent together, they noticed drastic changes in both of them, they both seemed happier, and the families were happy for them. But then she went back to being the careful girl she was before (and changed her hair back to its original flaming red), and he continued to be reckless, alone. They stopped interacting completely, no longer laughed at the stupidity of politicians together while watching the nightly news, and snuggled in the other's arms. They stopped going out to the cinema and watching horror movies followed by clichéd romance comedies. They stopped laughing.

She of course, being the cordial girl she was, politely said hello when they passed each other in the hallways at work. He would nod back curtly, avoiding eye contact. They stopped acting as if they were ever anything but colleagues at work, but on the inside, they both were destroyed. She went back to hiding her feeling, scared at the prospect of not having a perfect life. He went back to ignoring everyone, arrogant and proud. She felt that everything in life happened for a reason, and that there were mistakes that she had made, and could not be fixed, but she would never fall into a similar trap again. She would not be naïve and stupid. That was the past, and she refused to believe that the past repeated itself; she was no longer a child. Nobody ever knew what had torn them apart, except for one person.

The person that was the cause of this damage. That person was her cousin, the innocent looking one. The one that was sly and cunning on the inside. She was the poison hidden in a guiltless looking flower, Lily. She didn't mean to bring this on them, but she strongly believed in following her heart, and true love. So she did what she thought was right. She followed him home one day, and accompanied him to the door. And then, as she was waving goodbye, on impulse, she reached up and pushed her lips against his. And he didn't move to push her away. Maybe it was the way her lips felt different. He wasn't sure whether he like it or not, but his judgment was too clouded to react properly. Then Rose came home, right on time, five minutes later, and was shocked at the sight that greeted her home. When Scorpius realized that she had arrived, he pushed her cousin away, appalled at the thought that he had just been kissing a girl that was not the love of his life, but it was too late, she had pushed past him, and grabbed her stuff, and within the next half hour was out, without a word, and walked right back out the door, disappeared, and she never returned.

They both felt incomplete, but they ignored it. She would never let her guard down again. Ever. She never truly recovered, though she put up a happy facade to please others. She tried to get better, going out on "normal" dates with "normal" people. None of them seemed fit, or maybe she was just scared they would sneak around behind her back. Nothing felt right after that betrayal. He had tried to apologize after the "incident", but no apology could fix that image burned into the back of her head. It would always follow her around, a plague she couldn't escape. She would die with that horrible memory. She tried to remove it, but it was much too strong for magic, because love was the strongest magic there was.

He decided, after several failed attempts at apologizing, that he would best move on with life. He wasn't doing much good wasting away life. So he took action. As much at it hurt, as much as it pained him to move on, he did (or he convinced himself that he had, he truly was still in love with her) and took drastic action. He met up again with her cousin, Lily, and started dating her. He kissed her like he used to kiss his true love, he laughed at everything she said. He changed to fit her ways, because he was lost without guidance. He did all their things with Lily. He knew he was simply tainting Rose's memory, but he convinced himself that this was what he wanted. That's what he kept telling himself, throughout all the ups and downs. That's what finally motivated him to get the guts to do something.  
Something so shocking that it would pull him out of this reverie, trance of hopefulness, he needed to convince himself he was completely and totally over Rose. Any hope he had would be crushed by doing this. He was, after all, the reckless one. So one bright day in May, he got down on one knee after a particularly boring dinner at a local cafe. He pulled out a ring from his pocket, one he hadn't taken out since she left him. It was never meant for Lily, it would have been Rose's, it should have been Rose's, but it wasn't like she would take it now. He said those words, the ones that changed his life, and gave him something Rose would never get, another chance.

When Rose received a letter with fancy lettering on thick cream paper, she didn't bother opening it. She broke down into tears, for real, for the first time. She lost everything. She really knew she shouldn't still hang onto those memories, but those years were times when she was truly happy. The only time in her life when she felt truly happy. Nothing would ever replace that empty feeling in her stomach. So when she made the decision to attend the wedding, everyone thought she was crazy. Of course Lily was her cousin, but nobody thought that she would let herself go through that pain. But she was a fighter, and wasn't going to avoid the situation for the rest of her life; it just didn't work that way.

So she went, dressed in white, and wore a smile on her face. She took a glass of champagne, and sat down with her family. Once all the polite questions about how life was going had subsided into an uncomfortable silence, she finally stood up again. It was late into the night now, and couples were lazily twirling around in circles on the dance floor, and some of her extended family was leaning against others, slurred words barely comprehensible coming out of their mouths. She straightened her dress, and then boldly walked over to the groom. To Scorpius. No one was watching, everyone else had left or was too drunk to notice. She smiled when she reached him, and they both stared at each other for a moment. Then he quietly whispered "I really am sorry." She wasn't sure if it was about the kiss that had happened so long ago, or the fact that his wedding wasn't hers too. Either way, she nodded, and accepted the apology.

He started to talk again, "If it weren't for... you know what, we would have still been together you know. "This," he gestured around him "Wouldn't have happened." She didn't know what to say, she wasn't sure why he was even telling her this. Was it to remind her, so her poor broken heart would only shatter a bit more? Whatever it was, it made her feel vulnerable, not at all perfect. So when she felt tears coming on, she turned away, to head out. When she was walking away, she heard him talk again.

"Wait, don't leave." When she turned around once again, he was standing very close, so close that she could feel heat radiating off of him. "May I have this dance?" he spoke quietly, warm air blowing into her face. "Just this one?" The look on his face was pleading, and something made her say yes. Maybe it was the way his gray eyes held her blue eyes in such an intense gaze; maybe it was the look on his face. Whatever it was, it worked. He led her onto the dance floor, joining the few couples that were circling the floor. He put his arms around her waist, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, just like old times. After a few minutes, they both relaxed a bit more, she laid her head on his shoulder, flaming red hair clashing with pale blonde. They weren't sure when the song ended, and when the next song began, but they ended up in that position for ten minutes, before she pulled away, smiling faintly.

"I enjoyed that, thank you," she said to him, a bit embarrassed.

He looked into her eyes for a bit longer, and then said so softly that she barely heard what he said. "I still love you." She pretended she hadn't heard him, and he pretended as though he didn't say anything. They went their separate ways. But neither of them forgot that moment. And they never would. After that, they would occasionally see each other, at work, or at family events. She never found her replacement Prince Charming, and she honestly didn't mind. Even if she didn't trust him anymore, it was good to know she was still loved. Not that it mattered, of course.

Her cousin and her ex-lover had a baby boy four years later; she was surprised to find that she wasn't mad. She had found a way to move on. After all, she was a wise girl. She wouldn't let some paltry romance stand in her way forever. So she wrote him a letter. In that letter she let all her love, sorrow, and hate flow out of her, and onto that piece of paper. Her deepest thoughts were out of her system now, and the letter was on its way to him. In that letter she described her feelings as she saw him and her cousin at their old flat. She told him he was a cheating, dishonest, liar, and that he had hurt her too deeply to express. She explained that she was foolish in the first place to fall in love, that her mother was right. That she would never recover. Ever. That he would never understand the true pain he had inflicted upon her. She now knew the effects of love gone wrong. And nothing could fix it.

A/N: I was feeling a bit angsty... so yeah. This is my first fanfiction, so please review and tell me what you think! Thanks! - ObscureShadows


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